


Chase your dreams (and your nightmares will get tired of chasing you)

by just_somebody_who_writes



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Original Child Characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:27:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25846576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_somebody_who_writes/pseuds/just_somebody_who_writes
Summary: Scott Moir thought he had it all - he was the best skating talent in a generation and a two-time Olympian by the age of twenty-six. However, his entire world came crashing down in Sochi when he shattered his knee on Olympic ice. It’s taken him four years to build something of a life again, but it only takes one accident to remind him that any life is fragile and make him re-assess what he really wants with his.Tessa Virtue always believed she was destined to be a doctor. Actually, it was knowledge, not belief – she knew she was going to be a doctor. And even though she’s barely thirty, she’s one of the best orthopedic surgeons in Canada.  She loves her job and the last thing she wants is a distraction, especially one in the form of Scott Moir. But sometimes, the thing you didn’t think you wanted can turn out to be exactly what you need.- -Or the AU where Scott used to be a skater and Tessa is an orthopedic surgeon.
Relationships: Scott Moir & Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir/Tessa Virtue
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	Chase your dreams (and your nightmares will get tired of chasing you)

**Author's Note:**

> The title is (adapted from) a quote from Matshona Dhliwayo
> 
> So while I'm (slightly) procrastinating in writing the next chapter of Battle of the Blades (and doing my real work), I though I would explore something a little different.

# Chapter One

_15 November 2018_

_Montreal, Canada_

Scott Moir was fairly certain he had already lived the worst day of his life. Ironically, it was a day that was supposed to be the best day of his life – the culmination of everything he had spent his twenty-six years working towards. However, when one not only falls on Olympic ice, but in doing so smashes up their knee so badly they have to relearn to walk, forget about skating, all with the entire world watching, it very quickly becomes the day you would least like to repeat.

Today, though, it feels a lot like he’s living it again.

He feels like he’s watching a movie that’s just been switched to slow motion. One minute his skaters are executing their step sequence flawlessly, the best run through of their program they’ve managed yet with just the lift to go, and the next they are sprawled on the ice. Scott had seen it happening from where he stood behind the boards, unable to prevent it even as he started hurrying towards them. Brielle had missed her queue for the entry, and Elliot had tripped when he’d tried to compensate, missing her hands, and colliding with her mid-air. The result was both of them going flying across the ice, two distinct thuds that will keep Scott up at night as they crashed onto the unforgiving surface.

Elliot sits up quickly, grabbing at his shoulder with a yelp as he does. He’d landed hard on it, and Scott is hoping that it’s not his collar bone, but for now he’s more focused on Brielle, who’s still lying there totally immobile, slumped at an odd angle. Scott is kneeling next to her within seconds, ignoring the pain it causes his own knee.

He summons a clam he doesn’t know he possesses as he looks across to Patch, who is currently skating to them, and quickly tells him to call ‘911’. He’s thinks back to his first aid training, knowing he should try and assess her vitals without moving her. He’s relieved to see she’s breathing, but she’s clearly not conscious. Gently, he reaches his hand to her neck and is easily able to detect a fast but strong pulse. He nods at Patch, who is talking quickly into the phone in French, and although Scott still doesn’t speak that much, he’s able to ascertain that an ambulance is being sent.

Patch barks out an order to the other skaters that practice is done for now, and that someone should please find Marie-France. He leaves Scott with Brielle and helps Elliot to stand, carefully assessing his shoulder as he does.

Scott sits next to the unconscious girl, ignoring the cold ice beneath him. He’s not a doctor, so there’s not much he can do but wait for the paramedics. Feeling useless, he shrugs off his jacket and places it over her. She makes a small noise in the back of her throat as he does, and he’s relieved to see her slowly blink after that.

“Brie?” Elliot is next to them now, Patch helping him to stand on the ice.

“Give her a minute, Eli,” Scott manages to sound a lot less panicked than he feels.

“Brie?” Elliot asks again, staring down at his partner looking a more and more distressed.

Brielle’s eyes start to slowly focus on Scott, and he finds himself letting out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.

Elliot collapses to his knees next to her, grabbing her hand before Scott or Patrice can stop him.

“I’m sorry,” he’s murmuring quietly to her, tears starting to pool in his eyes.

Confusion clouds Brielle’s face, and she starts trying to sit up to talk to Elliot. Scott gently presses on her shoulder to keep her still until the paramedics arrive. Initially she resists him, but as she becomes more alert, she stops fighting.

“What,” she tries to speak, but it’s more of a choked whisper. “What hap…”

Scott shushes her gently. “You took a hard fall. I’m going to need you to lie still till we can get you looked at, okay?”

Brie blinks and although Scott isn’t entirely sure if it’s in agreement or just to clear her head, she does stop fighting him.

Fortunately, the paramedics are quick to arrive. Marie guides them to the rink and Scott sees her stop dead as she takes in the scene on the ice. At least there’s no blood, he thinks, but it must look quite scary with how Brielle is lying, twisted and totally still.

The paramedics make quick work of assessing Brielle, who has been slowly becoming more coherent, for which Scott is eternally grateful. However, they are concerned about her back, so they decide to keep her immobilized until after a doctor has seen her. They gently apply a C-collar and load her onto a stretcher, slowly but deftly carrying her off the ice. Her eyes go wider than Scott has ever seen when she sees the ambulance, and he tells rather than asks the paramedics that he’s going with. Elliot is still attached to her hand, quietly babbling apologies the entire time. After a quick look at how he’s holding his shoulder and the paramedics corral him into the ambulance too.

Marie and Patch both insist he keep them updated as they leave and promise to call both Brielle and Elliot’s parents and then meet them at the hospital as soon as the rest of the skaters have been sorted out. Falls are relatively common in ice dance practice, but (fortunately) the need for ambulances and hospital trips are extremely rare. 

The paramedic, Laura, Scott thinks is her name, efficiently hooks Brielle up to a variety of monitors and places an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. She goes to move it instantly, but Scott gently holds her hand back, quietly pleading with her to relax. Next to him on the bench seat, Elliot is taking deep breaths, apparently trying to hold back tears, more about Brie’s state than his own, Scott assumes.

By the time they arrive at the hospital, Brielle is thankfully a lot more coherent and her vitals are near normal. She’s wheeled into the emergency room on a gurney, where a doctor listens to Laura rattle off her history and vitals. The other paramedic (Dean?) diverts Scott and Elliot to the reception desk, asking them to check in so long. Scott thanks him and immediately starts filling out the forms. Elliot, rendered useless with a pen by his own injured right arm, shifts restlessly next to him. The woman behind the desk, someone around Scott’s mother’s age who looks like she has seen too much but is somehow still sympathetic, guides Elliot towards the exam room, telling him gently to wait outside for a few moments.

Once Scott hands over the paperwork, he goes to join Elliot who is pacing small circles outside the exam room. Before too long, the doctor steps out, introducing himself as Dr Kirkland, and states that Brielle definitely has a mild concussion. He is also worried about a possible vertebral fracture, although neurologically she appears fine. Elliot pales even further at that and Scott gently guides him to one of the chairs outside the room, before turning back to the doctor. Dr Kirkland explains that they have given Brielle some pain meds and he is going to call in the orthopedic specialist while she is taken to radiography for x-rays and a CAT scan.

Scott nods numbly, not totally taking it in. He’s all too familiar with hospitals, and all too familiar with career-ending injuries. He thinks his knee burns a little more than normal as he hears this, but he thinks that could also just be in his head.

The doctor takes Elliot into the exam room next to Brie’s to look at his arm and Scott takes a deep breath to steady himself before going into Brielle’s room.

She’s lying on the bed, tears running down her face when he walks in. He’s known her and Elliot for two years; since they were only fifteen and a little overwhelmed to suddenly find themselves skating at Gadbois with their heroes every day. He’s seen her through her first junior competition, and he was there after her grandfather passed away while they were away at a competition last year, but he has never seen her this pale or this scared. She has tears streaming down her face and she looks utterly terrified.

Scott takes the seat next to her and tries to find his voice. It’s not like he, of all people, can promise her everything is going to be alright. He’s trying to find something to reassure her when Brie surprises him by speaking first.

“Where’s Elliot?” Her voice is small and teary, but Scott smiles at her for trying.

“Next door, getting checked. We think it’s a collar bone,” Scott explains. He doesn’t need to add that Elliot’s more worried about her, she knows that already.

Brie nods, more tears falling as she does.

“I’m sorry,” she starts, and Scott jumps up to stop her.

“There is nothing to be sorry about, okay?”

“But I missed that entry,” she protests, sobbing in earnest now.

“Sssh, it’s okay,” Scott isn’t sure how to comfort her. He knows the feeling all too well, the need to focus on what you did wrong and what’s to blame for the accident. Instead he just holds her right hand, the one without the IV line, and lets her cry for a bit.

Eventually her sobs slow to little whimpers and Scott pulls out his phone.

“I think we should call your parents,” he says gently, only to see Elliot walk into the room and have that set off more tears. He decides to text them instead with a promise to call as soon as they’ve spoken to the surgeon.

A nurse arrives a minute later to take both skaters up to radiology, and Scott follows them numbly.

\- - -

He really does hate hospitals; Scott thinks about an hour later. He and Elliot are sitting on the world’s most uncomfortable plastic chairs in Brie’s room, still waiting for the orthopedic surgeon. Elliot’s arm is now in a sling, his collar bone fractured but fortunately expected to heal with conservative treatment only. So far, Elliot had largely ignored his own injury, except for a comment about how he would’ve liked a cast for people to sign more than the sling, although Scott is pretty sure that was an attempt to get a smile out of Brie more than anything.

Brie had been stoic during the trip from the ER to radiography, but the enormity of what was happening had hit her during the scan, when, alone in a room for the first time, she had broken down into massive sobs. Scott had had to hold Elliot back from rushing into the room to see her then, despite wanting to himself. Elliot had burst into tears when he’d seen her tear stained face and Scott himself had been unable to speak for the lump in his throat.

Brie had been taken to a private room to wait for the doctor and a kind nurse had brought him and Elliot into Brie’s room after they had got her settled. Brie was sleeping lightly, the pain medication she’d been given in the emergency room finally taking effect.

The waiting was killing Scott. It gave him too much time to think, to worry about Brie but also to remember some of the worst days of his life. The room was too white, just like the last hospital, and all of them before that. And the smell was always the same, antiseptic harsh and lingering. He could feel his heart rate rising in the face of the memories bombarding him, and he felt a need to get up and walk off his nervous energy.

Deciding that a trip to the cafeteria would at least provide some distraction while they waited, Scott turned to Elliot to ask him if he wanted something, only to be interrupted by the door opening and a woman in navy scrubs and a white coat walking in.

Brie stirred at the noise, whining quietly as she woke. Elliot went straight to her side, while Scott turned to the doctor.

“Good afternoon, sorry about the wait,” she said, holding her hand out to Scott. “I’m Dr Virtue.”

\- - -

Tessa had been enjoying a relatively good day. She’d had three surgeries scheduled, all of which had gone as well as could be expected and her residents had even been more prepared than normal for their morning discussions. Her case this afternoon, however, is putting a bit of a damper on her day. Medically, the case was pretty exciting, an unusual fracture which normally excited the surgeon in her, but during his handover, when Kirkland had described the patient as a ‘seventeen-year-old kid’, Tessa’s objective excitement about the case had been replaced by dread. She really hoped she wasn’t going to have to tell a teenager she would never walk again.

Tessa takes a deep breath to steady herself before entering the room - there’s no need to jump to conclusions before she’s examined her patient. Although, she does find herself wishing she had one of her residents here, using the case to teach them would provide her some distance from the patient and the emotional toll she was likely to have to take.

She knocks gently on the door before pushing it open. She’s greeted by two men (one barely more than a boy, she thinks), jumping up from the chairs on the side of the room. She glances at them for only a moment, they both look utterly distraught and she hates the mix of hope and terror on their faces.

She holds her hand out to the older man, although he can’t be much older than she is, really, “Hi, I’m Dr Virtue,” she says as she shakes his hand. There’s something slightly familiar about him, but she can’t quite place where she knows him from.

“Scott Moir,” he says, and again the name sounds a little familiar. “This is Elliot,” he says indicating the boy next him. “And Brielle Richard.” Her patient, who was apparently asleep, starts to stir as Tessa comes closer.

“Most people call her ‘Brie’,” Elliot adds, and Scott’s lips turn into a small smile filled with fondness for both teenagers.

“I’m Tessa,” she tells the boy, before turning back to Scott. “Are you Brie’s father?”

He looks a little startled, before managing to get out, “Coach. Figure skating coach,” he adds. “Her parents are in Saguenay. They’re on their way, but it’s a bit of a drive.”

Tessa nods in understanding. He looked too young to have a teenage daughter, but you never know. “I’m going to need to examine Brie and then we can all talk about what we’re looking at. Can you and Elliot give us a minute?” It’s phrased as a question, but it’s actually an instruction.

Scott gives Brie a gentle squeeze on the arm. She’s barely awake, the pain meds and trauma from the day finally catching up with her. With a final glance at Tessa, he shepherds a reluctant Elliot out of the room.

Tessa can hear the boy’s weak protests and Scott’s firmer reply of “It’s time we called your parents, too,” as she turns to Brie.

Brie looks a little more awake, and a lot more scared now that they’re alone in the room. Tessa starts by re-introducing herself before explaining the neurological exam she’s going to do.

“So, Brie,” she says as she test’s the girl’s ability to follow a finger with her eyes, “I’ve had a look at your scans, and they look promising with regards to spinal function, but we do need to do some testing before we plan the way forward.”

Brie gives her a small squeak of understanding, or terror, so Tessa gently guides her through the rest of the exam without too much talking. She’s glad to note that Brie’s motor and sensory functions appear intact, although she is in pain and Tessa is worried that she may deteriorate if the fracture fragments displace.

Satisfied, for now, she helps Brie lie back before asking if she would like Scott and Elliot back before Tessa discusses her injury. Normally she would wait for the parents, and they will need to be present for the big decisions that will be necessary in the next few days, but Brie’s file notes her skating coach as her medical proxy and she somehow figures there will be no keeping Elliot out of the room.

Brie still looks scared, and tired, but she squeaks out “Yes,” so Tessa calls them back into the room.

Elliot is just finishing up a phone call and Scott is restlessly pacing along the hallway. They both freeze when the see her but collect themselves quickly before following her back into the room. Elliot goes straight to stand next to Brie and grabs her hand. Scott looks a little lost before settling on standing on the other side of Brie’s bed.

“So,” Tessa takes a breath before she continues, steadying herself, “It’s still early days, but from the scans and clinical exams so far, I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re looking at a best case scenario,” she lets the news sink in a little before continuing, “Brie has a fracture of her third lumbar vertebrae,” she sees all three of them pale further as she says fracture. “But the good news is that it’s not displaced and there’s no damage to the spinal cord that we can see and, so far, all the neurological tests are promising.”

She takes a moment to let them absorb the good news before continuing. “However, Brie, it would probably be recommended to have surgery to stabilize the fracture.”

“Su.. su… surgery?” Brie sounds petrified. “On my back?” Elliot moves even closer to her.

“Surgery would be the best option to stabilize the vertebra,” Tessa explains. She is about to tell them they can discuss it all in the morning with Brie’s parents when an extremely worried couple bursts through the door. Tessa wonders if they are Elliot’s parents, given Brie’s are still hours away. 

“Brie, Elliot, are you okay?” The woman asks rushing towards the bed. Brie promptly bursts into tears, and the woman hugs her fiercely but gently.

The man walks straight to Scott, stopping next to him and putting his hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” He asks Scott, before noticing Tessa is in the room.

Scott nods tersely before saying to Tessa, “Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, head coaches at Gadbois. This is Dr Virtue,” he says to the man standing next to him as the woman is too engrossed in checking over their charges to take much notice.

Tessa nods to them politely, “I’ve been over what we know so far with Scott, I trust him to fill you in,” again it’s an instruction phrased as a question. “For tonight, we will manage Brie’s pain and then reassess in the morning when her parents are here,” she says to Scott before she leaves.

Tessa pauses once she’s outside the room, needing a moment to collect herself. She’s pleased that it looks promising, but Brie still has a long road ahead of her. Tessa hates it when it’s kids that are hurt. She doesn’t know too much about figure skating, but she reasons that you must be good to warrant three coaches and living six hours away from your parents at seventeen. She’s glad Brie’s got a big team around her, though, because she’s going to need all the support she can get. Tessa’s just hoping they everything keeps going well.

She stops in at the nurses’ station to clarify instructions for Brie’s pain medication and care overnight before heading up to her office. It’s already heading towards four and she still has several cases to review for tomorrow and her post-ops to check on and she said she would be home by five today.

\- - -

Elliot’s parents arrive around seven in the evening, Quebec City being a lot closer than Saguenay. It takes quite a bit of cajoling on Scott’s part to convince Elliot to go home with them for the night, though. It’s Brie who manages, eventually by telling him all she wants is to sleep and when his parents promise to bring him back first thing in the morning, he finally relents.

Marie-France tries to convince Scott to go home, too, with the same reasoning, but in the absence of Brie’s parents, he feels responsible for her. They eventually compromise, with Patch going home to look after their daughter while Marie stays with Scott as he takes up vigil in Brie’s room as she sleeps. Both Marie and Patch had been worried about him, fully understanding his own aversion to hospitals, but Scott Moir is nothing if not stubborn and he steadfastly refuses to leave.

Marie is quietly working on emails next to him, so he fiddles with his phone while they wait. Truthfully, he’s toying with sending Laila a message – his former partner is perhaps the one person who truly understands how much he hates hospitals – but he knows that if he messages her she’ll call straight away, and that will definitely turn him into an emotional mess and he needs to be strong for Brie. Better to call Laila tomorrow, he decides.

His mind drifts to the doctor from this afternoon. Tessa Virtue. It’s a pretty name, he thinks, idly. She looked really young to be a specialist, but Scott’s not judging – he knows all about achieving goals young. He was at the Olympics at twenty-two after all. She was also really pretty, he thinks now. At the time, he had been focused on her assessment of Brie, but as he recalls their interaction, he can’t help but think she’s one of the most beautiful women he’s even seen – even in her navy scrubs (or maybe especially in them).

It’s close to midnight when Brie’s mother gets to the hospital. She bursts into tears when she sees her daughter, but Marie manages to calm her before they wake Brie. She thanks Scott profusely for looking after her daughter, even though right now he feels responsible for her getting injured – it may be in no way his fault that she fell, but he’s the one who convinced her to move to Montreal two years ago and he can’t help thinking that if she’d never moved, this wouldn’t have happened.

Satisfied that Brie’s mother is with her, Scott and Marie finally leave shortly after midnight. He drops her off at home, thanking her again, despite not feeling like he can truly express how grateful he was for her support. She gives him a hug and sends him home, making him promise to call if he needs someone to talk.

Fifteen minutes later, he lets himself into his quiet apartment and limps off to bed. His knee aches more than normal, but he’s not sure if the pain is real or in his mind. It’s only when he sits down on his bed, the room dark and deathly silent, that he finally lets himself breakdown.


End file.
